I'm sure you guys don't remember but a year ago I picked up a 93 katana and slowly been swapping in a late model gsxr suspension (and a host of mods). It's been a slow process.. I'm working full time while attending college so I don't have as much free time as I'd like. I'm aiming for spring as my finish date. This is my 3rd design and attempt at the conversion but very pleased with the results. Essentially each time I finished I thought of a better design, better way of doing it. I decided long ago to do it the right way and not to compromise on quality so it's slowed down the process some. There's a few obsticals with this mod:
1. The swing arm axle tube is huge and hits the engine.
2. The axle tube in narrower than the katanas.
3. The arm is wider and hits the subframe.
4. It uses different size needle bearings (swing arm axle for the gixxer is 3 times the diameter of the katanas).
It poses other problems but I'll focus on the just the swingarm install stuff. To fix this all I chopped and re-fabbed a new subframe, made offset bushings to solve the needle bearing size issue, axle tube width problem and the tube hitting the engine. This design uses the katanas thrust washer set-up, is one piece billet construction, needle bearings have no chance to move in or outboard and the bushing itself can't rotate or move in or outboard (welded in place). It has proper press fit tolerances but I've learned long ago that components can do funny things when lots of force and vibration is applied. Using the stock thrust washers is important in my opinion, simply using spacers can lead to problems as they wear. I have the bushing modeled in solidworks with blueprints for it if anyone is interested. A few things I've learned is you want to take your inside frame measurement AFTER you have cut and welded the frame. Mine shrunk by .015" after the fact. I have swing arm width set at .006" smaller than the frame. As you torque the swing arm bolt it will squish it in some so you need some clearance. I have my needle bearing/axle bolts sleave stack-up as the larger width, not the axle tube/bushing stack up. Here's a few pics of the mod:
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1. The swing arm axle tube is huge and hits the engine.
2. The axle tube in narrower than the katanas.
3. The arm is wider and hits the subframe.
4. It uses different size needle bearings (swing arm axle for the gixxer is 3 times the diameter of the katanas).
It poses other problems but I'll focus on the just the swingarm install stuff. To fix this all I chopped and re-fabbed a new subframe, made offset bushings to solve the needle bearing size issue, axle tube width problem and the tube hitting the engine. This design uses the katanas thrust washer set-up, is one piece billet construction, needle bearings have no chance to move in or outboard and the bushing itself can't rotate or move in or outboard (welded in place). It has proper press fit tolerances but I've learned long ago that components can do funny things when lots of force and vibration is applied. Using the stock thrust washers is important in my opinion, simply using spacers can lead to problems as they wear. I have the bushing modeled in solidworks with blueprints for it if anyone is interested. A few things I've learned is you want to take your inside frame measurement AFTER you have cut and welded the frame. Mine shrunk by .015" after the fact. I have swing arm width set at .006" smaller than the frame. As you torque the swing arm bolt it will squish it in some so you need some clearance. I have my needle bearing/axle bolts sleave stack-up as the larger width, not the axle tube/bushing stack up. Here's a few pics of the mod:
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